City staff exploring alternatives for Oroville fire and police

OROVILLE &GT;&GT; With 70-percent of the city's general fund going to salaries and benefits in the Oroville Police and Fire departments, some city officials want to find out if using other services would save money.

Two items on the agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting will focus on those departments when City Administrator Randy Murphy and Public Safety Director Bill LaGrone ask the councilors to allow them to send out requests for proposals to several agencies.

The first item seeks approval to request proposals for the possible costs of contracting out to Cal Fire-Butte County or another fire agency for Oroville's fire services.

The other item is for approval to request proposals to find out whether it's feasible to consolidate with Butte County Sheriff's Office or another law enforcement agency for the city's growing demand.

According to the staff agenda reports, city resources for fire service are diminishing as the demand for service increases.

For police services, the city's financial situation has not allowed for adequate growth of the department, though crime is rising. The current staff level at Oroville Police Department is the same as it was in 1980, but the community is now twice the size, the report states.

Murphy and LaGrone talked about the requests in separate telephone interviews on Friday.

Murphy said that one of his responsibilities since becoming city administrator is to make sure the citizens of Oroville are getting the best value for their tax dollars.

He said 70 percent of all the salaries and benefits in the general fund go to the police and fire departments.

"We have to be good stewards and have to look at all the options," he said.

He and LaGrone are not asking to change things at this time, but are asking the council's direction for investigating options to provide safety services.

"We would like to look at the options, compare costs, and if there's an opportunity to save more money, we would seek approval to go forward," Murphy said. "If we would not save, or save enough, we would then go forward with a possible public safety tax or other measure."

Murphy emphasized that at this point, he and LaGrone are only asking permission to look into the possibilities.

"By no means are we changing things," he said. "This is to see if it would be feasible."

LaGrone said the subject came up recently when staff was looking at the sustainability of providing fire and police services.

Currently Oroville Police Department has 24 officers that take more than $4.8 million from the general fund.

On the Oroville Fire Department side, three engineers positions are frozen and there are 17 employees, not including LaGrone, who acts as both police chief and fire chief under the public safety director heading.

The cost for both departments combined is $7 million - out of a $12 million budget," LaGrone said.

He said until they can send out the requests and get the actual cost estimates, he doesn't know if making a change would be possible.

"We have to make sure we're getting the most for our tax dollars," LaGrone said. "We can't continue doing things in the city because that's how we've always done it."

LaGrone doesn't anticipate any difficulty Tuesday because at this point, he's only asking for permission to see how much it would cost.

"The difficult decision might come later if we have to actually make that change," he said.

The staff reports state that the purpose of seeking the alternatives is to find ways to provide better services, lower costs and still ensuring local control of police and fire services. That is an important point LaGrone emphasized, should there eventually be a change in services.

"I just want to be sure that people know we're not going to lose the community's identity of who Oroville is," he said. "That would be part of negotiations."

The council will also consider other business on Tuesday, including: An agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Program that will allow the Police Department to receive a share of proceeds in the future; and Engineer's reports on the city's Consolidated Landscape and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District and for the Consolidated Benefit District.

The City Council is scheduled to begin open session at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at 1735 Montgomery Street.